ReadNext Poetry Squad

R ap music and Hip-Hop culture grew up much as any folk form does: through the ingenuity of a people living in oppressive surroundings and creating art through economic constraints. Rap’s roots can be found in the African griots—traveling musicians who moved about to give the news of the day through semi-spoken, semi-sang performances. Town criers, if you will, with a sense of rhythm. Bearing this in mind, the “instruments” of early Hip-Hop culture included rappers’ poetry, voices (human beat-boxes), and turntables (erstwhile percussion instruments that doubled as means to a wealth of recorded excerpts). While many Hip-Hop performers never realize the protest potential in their music, many others have made the most of it. Ensembles such as Public Enemy were wonderfully militant in pieces like “Fight the Power” and on topical albums like Fear of a Black Planet . More recently, artists such as the Coup and Dead Prez have offered seriously radical Hip-Hop to mainstream audiences. 

The ReadNex Poetry Squad is a quartet of young men and women of color who perform in a spoken word style born of the Nuyorican Poets Café. Within their urgent statements, one can feel the spirit of luminaries such as Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, Sonia Sanchez, and Amiri Baraka. Yet, the multi-cultural spectrum of their September 2006 CD release Social ISsUe brings the message into one not only of self-identification, but of internationalism. Happily, this group infuses Spanish-language rap into strains of the spiritual “Wade in the Water” to create a powerful hybrid. The interplay of culture, genre, and social study is at the heart of ReadNex. They offer the listener visions of a global ’hood. 

Bits of seemingly off-the-cuff dialog interspersed with Hip-Hop are accompanied by strong electric guitar and an almost orchestral use of turntables. The spoken word becomes song, transforming into pure rhythm, and back, as band members Free Flowin,’ Cuttz El Colombiano, Decora, and Latin Translator put it forward. Fear not, aging activist, you will not be deafened by the intelligently programmed drum machine. It grooves as a pulse that will only drive you to the next cut. Here’s Hip-Hop that is anything but exclusionary or sexist. This music is as exciting as it is welcoming. This is the kind of CD you’ll want to borrow from the youth in your life. Its progressive, anti-war, social action message is as apparent as any. Standout cuts include “I Write,” “Wade,” “Ms. Education of Bling,” and “Ready for War.” “Cold World” offers a brilliant combination of multi-culti rap and Stax-like R&B vocals, while the disc’s closer, “Ghetto,” could be the next wave of the Last Poets. 

Okay, many leftists prefer their musical poets to carry acoustic guitars—or perhaps punk-laced electric ones. Let’s keep those as relevant as ever while also considering the strength of the new. Think of that while you ponder the importance of bringing more young folks into the movement. Then wonder why the ReadNex Poetry Squad was overlooked as performers at the recent peace demonstrations in DC and will probably be overlooked at the next. 

Z  

John Pietaro is a protest musician, labor organizer and writer from New York (www.flamesofdiscontent.org) .